EVIL QUEEN - Rebel Hart Page 0,8
describe how I felt at that statement. “Okay. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be. Just don’t do that again.”
A waitress came over, took our order, and brought me some coffee. As I stirred some creamer and sugar in, I looked up at Kyle. “It’s not just you, you know. I haven’t talked to anyone except for Nikita.”
“I know,” Kyle replied. “How are things with her? Still not going great?”
“How could they? She doesn’t trust me, and I can’t blame her,” I replied. “We’ve been…intimate, but there’s still this huge wall between us, and I honestly don’t know how to break it down.”
“It may just take time,” Kyle said. “Nikita loves you. That’s not some big mystery.”
“Yeah, and if I hadn’t done what I did to Cherri, there would be no issue, but I did.” I stared down into the caramel-colored coffee. “I fucked up, Kyle.”
“Yeah, you did,” Kyle said. “We have spoken at length about kicking your ass for what you did, but you’ve been through a lot, and Avery didn’t want to make things worse.”
“I’d have deserved it.” Kyle gave me an exhausted look, and I backed off. “Sorry. Anyway, you’ve talked to everyone, then?”
“All except Cherri,” Kyle replied. “She’s not talking to anyone. Everyone’s tried, but no luck. It wasn’t a great Christmas all around for The Royal Court.”
“How bad off is everyone?”
“Well, not to make you feel even more terrible, but it’s worse than I thought it would be.” Kyle took a sip of his coffee. “Avery’s inconsolable, having lost Cherri. Apparently, she bought her a ton of Christmas presents and tried to drop them off for her at her parent’s house, but her mom wouldn’t even take them. Said she didn’t want to waste Avery’s money because Cherri wouldn’t accept them.”
My heart broke. For all the shit that I’d caused, forcing The Royal Court into existence, Cherri and Avery’s pure, real friendship was one of the good things that came from it. I hated knowing that I caused that rift. “Damn.”
“Alistair has, of course, been with her the entire time, but he doesn’t know how to help her. He’s been trying non-stop. He’s pretty exhausted. Jaxon is Jaxon. You know, he’s not much of a talker, but he’s been exceptionally quiet. Brayden is who I’ve talked to the most.”
“He called me non-stop during Christmas break.”
“Yeah, he wouldn’t stop talking about you for a second. Kept saying that we should do something to help you, but I told him you just needed space. He wanted to try and force the Christmas party, but I knew people wouldn’t be in a celebratory mood. I hung out with him a lot over Christmas break.”
I raised an eyebrow, knowing that Kyle wasn’t Brayden’s number one fan by any stretch. “Really?”
“Well? No one really likes dealing with him other than you, but you were MIA. I was… I don’t know. I was trying to look out for everyone. Him too.”
In truth, Kyle would probably make a way better leader of The Royal Court than I had been, but I knew he wouldn’t take it if I offered it, so I kept that thought to myself. “Thanks. What about Colette?”
Kyle’s face went from indifferent to flat out depressed. “She’s, uh…” He let out a sigh. “She’s taking it hard. Like, really hard. She’s decided to step down as valedictorian and class president.”
My stomach twisted into a tight knot. “What? Why?”
“I don’t know. She was willing to talk to me, but not about very much, and not for very long. Whenever I would call to check on her, the very first thing she would ask me is if I’d heard from Cherri, and when I said I hadn’t, she would clam right up.”
“Shit,” I grumbled. “She was the one person I thought might be doing okay.”
“Yeah, me too. I don’t get it. She’s really struggling with it,” Kyle said. “I’ve asked what I can do to help, but I honestly don’t think she knows.”
Our food came, but we both slowly picked at it as the tension of the conversation blanketed over us.
“What’s next for us, do you think?” Kyle asked.
“Damned if I know,” I said. “I don’t even know what’s next for me. I know that’s a horrible thing to say as a leader, but it’s true.” The food both smelled and tasted amazing, but I was struggling to eat much of anything because of the way the guilt over hurting my friends was eating away at me. “I am gonna make it up to all